Commuter trains wonderful; that is, until they don’t work on schedule

I’m a native of what’s  thought of these days as the greater Sout’ Side part of Chicago (having lived both city and suburb), and I’m actually someone who often uses the commuter trains in order to get around.

Commutes through the Hegewisch neighborhood were among those tampered with Tuesday by Mother Nature. Photos by Gregory Tejeda

It’s largely because I don’t have an automobile these days; enjoy the notion of not having a monthly car payment to make and also detest the idea of paying for parking – particularly on those occasions when I have to travel downtown.

THE ONE TIME in my life I shelled out some $35 to park a car for about two hours in a downtown garage is a horrid memory – and an experience I never want to repeat again during my lifetime.

So let’s just say that the hardest part of the crummy winter weather we’ve experienced in recent weeks is what it has done to my commute.

I’m actually one of those individuals who was impacted by the commuter trains being totally thrown off schedule – if not shut down outright. Of course, the wintry weather also significantly reduced my desire to make any sort of trip unless absolutely necessary.

Which is why Tuesday was particularly depressing during the morning hours.

Weather tampered w/ overhead cables

THAT WAS THE time when the Metra commuter railroad’s “Electric” line was out of commission, as was the South Shore line that takes people from downtown Chicago into Indiana all the way out to South Bend.

I’ve almost never made the trip all the way to the home town of Notre Dame. But there are times when I do have to venture into Hoosierland and rely on a combination of the two trains (usually making the transition in the Hyde Park neighborhood) to get there.

Learning that such a trip was impossible put quite a damper on my morning mood.

Fortunately for me, the travel I had to do on Tuesday didn’t come until later in the day by which time the trains were up and running again (with the icy conditions having been overcome, for the time being). And also, I was able to borrow use of a car for the day.

WHICH MADE ME a commuter braving the icy roads and hoping that I neither lost control of someone else’s automobile – or no one else driving around me lost control of their car and came crashing into me!

Many fewer commuters passing through Millennium station these days

Being able to rely on the commuter trains (and the CTA ‘el’ within the city limits proper) is such a convenience. One of the advantages of urban life.

That is, until the weather manages to take the system down in whatever way possible so that the ability to transport oneself from place to place becomes a near impossibility.

Then, one can feel so incredibly isolated even within a massive urban area. Almost as though Mother Nature is feeing the need to remind us all that none of us are above the impact of her quirks and how she, not we, are the ones ultimately in control of our environs.

Anxiously awaiting summer days

I’LL ADMIT IT was worse a couple of weeks ago at the peak of the polar vortex – remember those days of 50-below wind chill temperatures and railroad people literally were igniting the train tracks aflame so as to keep them from freezing over and it was all the commuter train lines throughout the Chicago area that were impacted?

This is a lesser scale inconvenience, but it has me hoping for springtime weather. With the fact that springtime-like weather conditions in Arizona made it possible for both the White Sox and Cubs to begin spring training camps was little concession.

I will admit I was pleased to learn that Metra is considering this weekend free train rides (as to the usual $10 fare for a weekend pass) come Saturday and Sunday. It has me pondering a trip downtown so as to take advantage of the discount perk.

It would, however, be just my luck that the free fare comes at a time when the train (which has a commuter stop just a couple of blocks from my current humble abode) isn’t any guarantee to be operating, or running anywhere near to on schedule.

  -30-

How long until proposed Red Line extension turns local tempers all “red?”

It is one of those projects that has been discussed for years – extending the Chicago Transit Authority elevated commuter train lines deeper into the city’s South Side than they already go.
 

Proposed route for Red Line extension

On a certain level, the project makes too much sense. The commuter trains that help city residents get from place to place and are a common fact of everyday life in most of the city only go as far south as 95^th Street.

WHILE CHICAGO ITSELF usually considers 119^th Street to be its southern boundary and there are parts of the city at the southeastern corner where 138^th Street is the end of life as we know it and where suburbia begins.

Now as somebody who actually originates from that part of the city (born in South Chicago and with relatives scattered across the neighborhoods that comprise the 10^th Ward), this is a project that I have long followed.

Because for people in the southeast part of the city, there are a few bus lines that pass through that eventually can take you to a place along the Dan Ryan Expressway where you can catch a Red Line train.

But it can be a slow, plodding trip (what with all those bus stops) and it can result in an hour-and-a-half journey to get downtown. There are parts of Will County or Gary, Ind., that have quicker connections to downtown Chicago via suburban commuter trains.

IT’S NO WONDER that those people who live near a Metra Electric line station in the South Chicago or South Shore neighborhoods, or in the Hegewisch neighborhood where the Indiana-based South Shore commuter line keeps its lone Illinois-based station, prefer to use those suburban-influenced services even though they're very much urban residents.

Which is why the idea of extending that Red Line train that now runs down the middle of the Dan Ryan to 95^th Street would be a life-altering experience for the Far South Side.

 

Metra lines more a daily life reality in Far South Chi

A direct CTA el train extension going to 130^th Street? Actual stations in the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods – instead of having to take a bus to the west to catch a Metra Rock Island line commuter train in the Beverly or Morgan Park neighborhoods.

It sounds like nirvana (and I don’t mean the 90’s era rock band).

EXCEPT TO THOSE people who, while complaining about how isolated their part of Chicago often feels, will also be the first to complain about anything that brings about change.

They’ll be the ones who think of el trains as being something associated with “the ghetto” or artsy-fartsy North Side neighborhoods – and something they’ve managed to do without all these years.

I have heard from some of these people already. Although they have been muted largely because of skepticism that the city will ever get its act together and actually build the extension!

But will they get louder, now that talk is progressing to the point of figuring out where exactly new track would have to be built. City officials this week said they would allocate some $75 million for engineering studies. Which means figuring out what structures would need to be torn down.

CRAIN’S CHICAGO BUSINESS reported Thursday about the project – pointing out that 82 single-family homes and 19 multi-family properties are on a list of things that would need to be torn down to make room for 5.3 miles more of train track for the el extension.

The weekly business newspaper already has some comment from people who admit train service would be nice, but not necessary if it means they have to move.

Personally, I became an el proponent back during the stints I lived in North and Northwest Side neighborhoods, and I often wonder how it is that my home base neighborhood, so to speak, has never been willing to demand such equal service.

May someday no longer be distant southern CTA outpost?

Except that too many people living out in the land where Indiana isn’t an esoteric concept but is the place at the other end of the Chicago Skyway have become too used to their sense of isolation from the rest of Chicago – a concept whose time truly ought to come to an end.

  -30-

Rehiring him cheaper than severance?

As someone who has, on a few occasions, had the experience of collecting severance pay because my employer saw me as a threat to their profitability, I must confess to finding the whole situation surrounding Alex Clifford to be quite hilarious.

How much more will this ride cost because of the cost of Alex Clifford's severance package?

 

Clifford is the former chief executive officer of the Metra commuter railroad that takes people from the suburbs into downtown Chicago. He was let go from his post, and he was given a severance package to get him out the door that went far beyond the one week’s pay for every year served with the company.

DEPENDING ON WHO one wants to trust, the total of Clifford’s severance package totals somewhere between $750,000 and $900,000.

That has Metra officials complaining, particularly since it seems that under slightly different circumstances, they could have used an insurance policy they have to actually cover the cost of the severance – rather than having to pay the cost out of their actual budget.

Clifford, of course, is being his “courteous” self (heavy sarcasm intended) in saying that he’d be more than willing to forgo his severance.

Just give him his job back!

I DON’T KNOW how sincere Clifford’s attorneys were when they made that offer earlier this week. For purposes of this commentary, I’ll presume that there are conditions under which Clifford would actually return to an entity that was eager to remove him previously.

Then again, I’d probably return to most of my former employers if the money they offered was decent enough – ie., a pay raise of sufficient size to help assuage my ego for the blows it suffered by being cut loose.

Yes, that’s sarcasm too.

But it is why I find humor in the idea that Clifford’s legal representation would make such an offer.

I SUSPECT THAT Metra officials privately are wretching at the very thought of having to pay Clifford anything more. They desperately wish that negotiations they had with Clifford back when he was let go as CEO had been more hard-lined and that they could have gotten away with making a significantly-less payment to get him to leave without incident.

Which is why the laid-off employee in me thinks it only appropriate that this particular dismissal will wind up costing Metra a significant amount of money.

After all, the premise behind a lay off is supposed to be that it will be cheaper to just throw a few weeks’ salary at someone for work not done, in exchange for not having to keep them on the payroll at salary and insurance benefits.

In the long run, it should cut costs. But as we see from this case, it doesn’t always do that.

THERE’S ALSO THE “plus” that this incident may better educate the public as to the ways of corporate actions.

Because while the idea of a few week’s pay as severance to tide us over until we quickly (in theory) find a new job is customary to you and me, to the corporate world, these larger severance payments are customary.

It seems the executives of the world think they’re supposed to make a profit out of being dismissed from a job. Because the kinds of contacts they make in their work aren’t enough to help them find new employment, they want sizable payments.

Although a payment that could be close to $1 million seems extreme – even by corporate standards.

THERE’S JUST ONE potential drawback to this whole mess – the fact that Metra isn’t really a corporate entity, but one that provides a public service.

Which means there’s a very good chance that the cost of this severance could wind up causing a future hike in our fares. As if I’m not paying enough on those occasions I use the trains on Metra’s Electric or Rock Island lines.

  -30-

Residency issue, in reverse?

Usually when we hear of residency being an issue in government, it involves those people who have some requirement related to their jobs that they live in the city of Chicago proper – but try to have a more suburban lifestyle.

RAKESTRAW: No longer suburban

We’ve all heard of the enclaves of city workers (with a large percentage of police and firefighters) on the southwest and northwest edges of the city – allowing them to live within blocks of the city limits and suburban communities.

NOT THAT I have anyone choosing to live in a suburb. It’s their life, and if they’re willing to endure the lengthier commute to get into downtown Chicago, so be it.

But it is a reality that makes the current residency controversy on the Metra commuter railroad board all the more ironic.

For in that board’s case, there is a member being asked to resign his post because he is not in compliance with the residency requirement. For the Chicago Tribune has figured out that the board member actually lives not only in Chicago, but is one of those people living in a high-rise that gives him a wonderful view of Millenium Park.

He’s right in the heart of the action.

BUT SINCE HE was given a seat on the Metra board by Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, it seems she believes he must have a suburban Cook County home address – even though he believes he merely has to live somewhere within the county (either city or suburb).

For the record, I have never met Stan Rakestraw (the Metra board member in question). He used to be a nursing home administrator, but now operates SCR Medical Transportation, Inc., along with his wife, Pam. I don’t know how good a performance he provided in his service on the board that oversees those commuter trains taking people from the outer suburbs into downtown Chicago (and include some stops in the Far South and Southeast sides of Chicago).

Published reports indicate that Rakestraw got the appointment back at a time when he still had a home address in suburban Flossmoor. Although the Tribune reported that the house was damaged by fire, and his response was to move to a downtown-based condominium.

PRECKWINKLE: Needs a Metra member

Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In my wildest fantasies, I wouldn’t mind living that close to the action of urban Chicago. If he can swing it financially, more power to him.

AND HE CERTAINLY isn’t gaining that wealth from the political appointment – the Metra board post only pays $15,000 annually.

But there is the fact that the Metra board was meant to be a suburban dominated entity; as a counterpart to the Chicago Transit Board that oversees the CTA buses and elevated train lines and has a Chicago-dominant board.

In the case of the Metra board, Mayor Rahm Emanuel gets one appointment to Preckwinkle’s five – with the understanding that only the mayor gets to pick a city resident. The heads of county government in the five surrounding counties each get one appointment.

Which makes for a 10-1 suburban/city ratio on the Metra board. That may be a bit much (and goes a long way toward explaining why Metra is willing to let its stops in the city deteriorate).

BUT I ALSO comprehend the idea of regulations that ought to be followed. Maybe we ought to consider a change in the composition of these boards? To that end, Gov. Pat Quinn created on Thursday a 15-member commission to study mass transit boards -- one of whose members is former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. A move that had many political cynics pleased.

But until some sort of action is taken, the regulations are going to have to be followed. Which is why Rakestraw peacefully resigned his post Thursday afternoon, instead of putting up a political fight. He does, after all, serve at the pleasure of Preckwinkle, who to her credit asked for Rakestraw’s resignation once the situation was brought to her attention.

Although we all should admit that, relatively speaking, this is a minor infraction by a government appointee. We can only fantasize that this is the worst thing we will see one of our officials commit.

  -30-

What attorney who’s worth anything doesn’t have a conflict of interest?

As I write this, I can hear the moans and groans of those individuals who as recently as a few days ago were convinced that they finally had that crook, otherwise known as “Mr. Speaker,” just where they wanted him.

MADIGAN: Breathing easier

Seriously, I came across several comments on the Internet (all anonymous) Thursday and Friday that had as their theme the idea that former federal prosecutor Patrick Collins was going to be the guy who – after all these decades – would catch Illinois House Speaker Michael J. Madigan, D-Chicago, in some sort of act that would send him off to a federal prison.

NOT THAT ANY of these people had a clue what this illegal act would turn out to be. In fact, I sense for them what ought to be “illegal” about Madigan is that he has the “D” after his name, instead of an “R.”

But they want him, by any means necessary. And Collins is the guy who gets credit for putting former Gov. George Ryan in prison for all those years.

So how disappointed the ideologues likely are because Collins on Monday said he’s not available to do any investigation of Metra and its former CEO – who allegedly engaged in assorted political hiring and other inappropriate behavior; some of which was supposedly done at the request of Madigan.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t know anything specifically about this particular investigation – other than that Collins was supposedly going to be involved.

BUT COLLINS’ LAW firm, Perkins Coie, let it be known Sunday that it has a “potential conflict” in being involved with this case, and that Collins himself is not available to be involved in this matter.

The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that an initial check on Collins showed no problems, but that the law firm later learned of “additional conflict issues.” Which is purposefully vague.

COLLINS: Stepping aside voluntarily

The fact that Collins won’t be involved in the case, after all, means he will be able to get away without telling us what the potential problem was.

But it does mean that the “investigation” into Metra and former CEO Alex Clifford is going to have to wait until an attorney can be found who is capable of conducting an investigation without there being some perception that he (or she) is biased in favor of Madigan or Metra.

WHICH COULD TURN out to be difficult.

One of the issues involved is that Madigan has been involved in the Springfield political and Chicago legal communities for so long that it is hard to envision anybody who would be absolutely neutral whenever his name comes up. The idea of a completely-nonpartisan investigator may not be possible.

Take into account the case involving Richard “R.J.” Vanecko; the nephew of former Mayor Richard M. Daley and also of Democratic gubernatorial hopeful William Daley.

Remember how his criminal case was originally assigned to Judge Arthur Hill – who voluntarily backed away because he admitted his legal career owed significant ties to Richard M. back when he was the Cook County state’s attorney?

OFFICIALS SOUGHT OUT a judge from outside of Cook County, and Maureen McIntyre of McHenry County ultimately got assigned to the case. She remains on it, even though the Chicago Sun-Times came up with a batch of allegations concerning she and her ex-husband that makes her appear to be less-than-ideal.

If anything, we tend to have a legal system that gives us “justice” despite the characteristics of the individuals who work in the system.

Which is why Madigan may be able to breathe a bit easier these days concerning this Metra stuff. It may well turn out that any future attorney who gets dragged into conducting this investigation is going to be scrutinized so intensely (that’s “scrootened,” in former Mayor Daley speak) that they may decide the duties aren’t worth the hassle.

  -30-

Metra increases a fare, after saying there’d be no fare increases this year

I can’t say I’m surprised at the outrage some people might be feeling these days toward Metra, the commuter railroad system, for the increase in ticket prices it approved just a couple of days ago.

This increase comes just a couple of weeks after Metra officials told the Cook County Board (which reviews mass transit budgets) that they were preparing a budget for 2013 that calls for no fare hikes. Prices would remain the same, except when they don’t – it seems.

NOW FOR THOSE of you who are confused, keep in mind that Metra technically didn’t  break its word. They kept themselves within the “letter of the law,” so to speak, with regards to fares for the upcoming year.

For the basic fare for those people who ride Metra trains will remain the same. As will the prices charged for those people who purchase monthly passes to allow them to come and go every day without having to make a routine out of shelling out cash!

What Metra’s board increased was the cost of what they call a 10-ride ticket, one that gives you up to 10 rides on a Metra train for a period of up to six months.

The current fare is based on the cost of nine one-way rides, with the 10^th being a freebie on account of the fact that the commuter is coughing up their money up front. Metra gets theirs, and there’s always the chance you could lose a ticket with a ride or two remaining – meaning that they get a financial perk in the process.

BUT COME FEBRUARY, people are going to have to pay for the full 10 rides, which means the only bonus is that you won’t have to wait in the ticket line every single time you want to catch a train.

I honestly believe the fact that they were getting cash up front was a financial plus for Metra that they should have respected. Particularly since it was just this past year that all Metra fares went up – including the cost of the 10-ride tickets (it used to be that you paid the price of eight one-way rides for a 10-ride).

So excuse me for being a little less than sympathetic to Metra for slipping this increase through when their board met Friday.

And yes, I should disclose the fact that I am an occasional Metra train rider who always tries to have a 10-ride ticket on me so that I can just board a train without having to worry about paying for the ride.

CURRENTLY, I’M ON a ticket with three rides remaining. So there is a self-interest I am expressing in this particular rant of a commentary.

Keep in mind that this isn’t just a suburban issue (which is probably how some city dwellers want to view Metra since they probably use the CTA trains and buses for public commutes).

Go out to a neighborhood like Hyde Park where the elevated trains convenience skip by, and it becomes those Metra Electric trains (the ones that are getting new cars that finally will have lavatory facilities) that provide the direct connection to downtown Chicago – along with neighborhoods such as South Shore and South Chicago.

Swing out to the Southwest Side, and it becomes those Rock Island line trains that can take Beverly or Morgan Park neighborhood residents deeper into the city without having to drive a car. It's not just people coming in from Kenosha, Wis. (although there are a few of them as well).

THIS MOVE – WHICH Metra officials say is meant to raise $8.3 million to be used for repairs and maintenance – is going to have an impact on many people,

Which makes me convinced I’m not the only one who feels a bit of disgust – even if an increased cost of a Metra 10-ride is still probably cheaper than the cost of parking one’s car at a downtown garage!

But that’s a rant to be written for another day.

  -30-

Wave of the transit future?

There might be one plus to the overhaul the Chicago Transit Authority plans to do to that train line that runs down the middle of the Dan Ryan Expressway – it could be the act that forces transit officials from city and suburb to figure out how their systems should work together.

Because the way the system is set up now is so oriented to, perhaps, the first third of the 20^th Century – rather than the way the world really works these days.

AT A TIME when some officials think we should be encouraging people to use mass transit more often, we have to accept the fact that the current layout makes such use way too impractical.

There have been times I have lived in city neighborhoods that were laid out in ways where it was utterly practical to rely on the el trains and buses to get around – along with the occasional taxicab.

I can see how some people are able to get through life without an automobile. A part of me wishes I could do that now.

Instead, I keep an aging automobile running because I don’t want the payment of a new car, and the idea of not having any car would keep me completely isolated. Because I’m living these days in a place where I’d be cut off from certain parts of the world.

EVEN THOUGH I live these days just a few blocks (an easy walk) from a Metra commuter station on the Rock Island line that runs from LaSalle Street station to Joliet’s Union Station – where in theory I can catch the Amtrak train that could take me to Springfield, St. Louis or point further on.

Some people don’t even have that much access.

City vs. suburb needs to end....

Which is why I was glad to see the Chicago Sun-Times report on Thursday that has the CTA and Metra trying to figure out how their lines can cooperate. Perhaps some people who now rely on that “red” line train from 95^th Street north to downtown can use a Metra Electric train just to the east to be able to make their commute to work when the CTA line is shut down for a major overhaul.

Because the idea that a system meant to get around Chicago proper and another meant to take people from suburbs to downtown just misses the point.



... for good of metropolitan area



MORE PEOPLE FROM suburban areas might be willing to use mass transit if they could more easily get to locations around Chicago – rather than having to take the trip all the way downtown, then try to figure out how to get to whatever neighborhood they want to go to via the CTA.

And let’s be honest. There are holes in the CTA system. I don’t see any el trains that go to the Hyde Park neighborhood. There, the Metra trains that happen to pass through get used for local transportation needs when they make their stops around 51^st, 55^th and 59^th streets.

Or you can take the fact that el trains only go as far south as 95^th Street – even though the Chicago city limit is largely 119^th Street, and dips as far south as 138^th Street in some points.

That’s a large swath of city ignored by the CTA (to the point where those residents have grown up expecting nothing in the way of mass transit, even though their tax dollars have to pay for it).

FOR THOSE CITY residents who have reasons to venture into suburban communities, life can be just as complicated – unless their business happens to be limited to specific communities like Evanston, Oak Park or Cicero.

Life doesn’t end at those communities right on the city border.

So as CTA officials try to figure out how they can use Metra trains to help their riders cope with the shutdown period next year, perhaps they can also engage in the kind of talks that could someday see us have a truly legitimate metropolitan transit system.

For the fact is that the Chicago area continues to grow (Peotone isn’t really as isolated a community as third airport opponents would like to think it is). Mass transit is going to have to grow along with it if we’re going to be able to go anywhere.

  -30-

NATO summit being turned into massive inconvenience for Chicagoans

I can already anticipate the screwy news story that will occur some time this coming weekend – some airplane pilot is going to inadvertently fly his aircraft within 10 nautical miles of the McCormick Place convention center.

That is going to be a “no-no.” Whoever that pilot is will turn out to have committed a serious federal offense.

I’M SURE THE conservative ideologues will try to twist the incident into some major overstep by federal government – all because the NATO summit is being held there and Federal Aviation Administration regulations are being imposed for security measures.

They will be anxious for anything that can be twisted into the Obama administration abusing its authority for political purposes – which is nonsense, of course!

But the fact is that there are going to be a lot of high-level security measures imposed during the next few days – reaching a peak come Saturday through Monday when the world leaders will be in our fair city (or at least in hotel and conference rooms within our city) to try to negotiate deals that theoretically could provide that “world peace” that so many beauty pageant winners say they desperately want to work toward.

Somehow, I sense the end result of these measures is going to be a p’o-ed population that is going to view the presence of NATO in Chicago as nothing more than an inconvenience in their daily lives.

PERHAPS THAT WAS the intent of the people organizing the event. Have everybody focus attention on the protesters, and make them believe that all the inconveniences are because of “those people.”

Which would be nonsense. Then again, nonsense usually has a sense of prevailing.

Will they get the blame?



And considering that many people are going to view the NATO summit as the reason they couldn’t have their morning cup of coffee while riding the commuter train to work, it might well work.

Some people are self-centered enough to view events purely by the minute manner in which it impacts them.

THAT IS THE thought that popped into my mind the other day when I read about the security restrictions that will be imposed on Metra commuter train riders who try to get themselves to work.

Only one commuter line will be directly impacted – the Metra Electric line that runs from Randolph Street station to University Park, with spurs that go to Blue Island and to 91^st Street in the South Chicago neighborhood.

Basically, they’re closing down the bulk of the city-based stations, which will put South Side residents in a bind when trying to figure out how to get to work. They will have the serious imposition.

But the suburban people will be imposed as well, as officials are restricting the size of bags that people can carry on board the train, forbidding them from bringing their bicycles on board.

AND NO MORE of those aforementioned coffee cups – or any other food or drink.

As someone who used to use the Metra Electric commuter line on a regular basis (and still rides it on occasion because I detest having to pay for parking in the Loop), my mind’s ear can hear the rants and rages.

I’m wondering just how intense the whining and moaning will be when people also learn of the other security provision – people are being warned that they may be searched before being allowed to board a commuter train.

The only aspect some care about

Considering that I have seen many people throughout the years who honestly believe that they can arrive at the train station in the final seconds before a commuter train pulls in, how will they react to learning that they’re supposed to show up earlier than usual so they can be patted down?

WHAT ABOUT THE museums? I don’t know how much of an inconvenience it is for the Adler Planetarium, the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium (all located near the South Loop along the lakefront) to be closed.

Although I’m sure there will be someone who planned a trip to Chicago for this weekend for the explicit purpose of visiting those facilities who will manage to be grossly offended that their “vacation” was interfered with by something as “trivial” as NATO.

Because somehow the trivia of our daily lives will manage to become all-important to some people come week’s end.

  -30-

Whether water or transit, ‘city v. suburb’ always (sarcasm intended) a treat

Looking over the news emanating from Chicago, I can’t help but see two new fronts in the perpetual battle of ‘city vs. suburb.’

Metra commuter railroad officials are boosting the rates they charge for the trains that take people from points ranging from Kenosha, Wis., and Joliet into downtown Chicago. But those people who live in the city proper will not have to pay as much of an increase.

MEANWHILE, MAYOR RAHM Emanuel talked of how he wants to raise the rates people pay to the city for fresh water from Lake Michigan. And one of his justifications is that it won’t just be city residents who get stuck with larger water bills.

The various suburbs that rely on Chicago’s infrastructure to get water from the Great Lakes will also have to pay more, with Emanuel going so far as to say that the city increase will justify the big increase he’s going to demand of suburbs that don’t want to resort to the days of old – when their residents had to drink well water that had a funky taste to it, compared to what comes from Lake Michigan.

You can just tell that we’re going to hear a lot of griping between the residents of Chicago and the roughly two-thirds majority of metropolitan area residents who prefer to live in one of the city’s nearly 260 suburbs.

How many local suburban government officials in coming months are going to have to jerk up their own water rates, and will tell their taxpayers, “It’s Rahm’s fault.”

THEY WOULDN’T HAVE even dreamed of boosting the water bill, had it not been for the city feeling greed and trying to resolve their own financial problems by squeezing a few more dimes from the suburbs.

That last paragraph leaves me feeling dizzy, what with all the political spin it contains. Then again, it probably won’t be any more ridiculous than the rhetoric we’re going to get from city officials.

We’ve already got some earlier this month in the form of Emanuel implying that it’s the fault of the suburbs for not paying their water bills in a timely fashion that the city is lacking in revenue. Seriously, part of the Chicago efforts will be turning up the collection efforts against those suburbs that are behind on paying the city for access to water.

This is going to get ugly before it gets resolved. Perhaps we should get into some serious sort of debate over just who “owns” the water supply from Lake Michigan.

WHICH IS WHY Chicago is the focal point of the metropolitan area, and why it is the pre-eminent city of the Midwestern United States. Having a reliable fresh water supply is such an advantage, and those inland municipalities that have to rely on the city to get their water are paying for their locations.

Which is also why whenever the Asian Carp debate comes up, it is scary that some people seriously want to undo the late 19^th Century effort that reversed the flow of the Chicago River toward the south (and away from Lake Michigan).

I always wonder if they really want to taint the fresh water supply of a major city with the garbage from the rest of Illinois. Or have they just not thought this issue out far enough to realize the potential for a real mess?

As one who was born in Chicago and has lived both city and suburban (as well as downstate Illinois and even a little stint in the District of Columbia), it always amuses me the degree to which these ‘city vs. suburb’ fights can escalate. Because in the end, they always come across as trivial.

JUST LIKE THE debate we’re hearing over Metra rates. The commuter railroad’s officials on Friday reviewed a $0.75 increase in the price of tickets for people who catch the trains in the suburbs, but only a $0.50 increase for those who catch Metra trains at city-based stations. Final approval could come next month, with new rates taking effect in February 2012.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the lower rate was justified on the grounds that charging the same amount for both city and suburbs would have meant a larger percentage increase for city-based riders – since Metra charges people for their tickets based on how long a ride they take on one of their trains. Meaning that the person who catches a Metra Electric train at 57^th Street in the Hyde Park neighborhood pays far less ($2.50, one-way) than the person who rides a Southwest Line train from Manhattan, Ill. ($6.50).

Of course, that has suburban residents now claiming they’re getting hit with the bulk of Metra’s attempts to balance its budget, while some city residents claim that getting an increase for what they see as limited transit opportunities amounts to communities with significant racial minority populations getting slighted.

And both sides are more than willing to say the other side is spewing trash talk – regardless of whether the issue is commuter train fares or water rates.

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Did you spend the weekend in the dark?

As a reporter-type person, I fully appreciate the reason why the big headlines during the weekend related to the severe storm that pushed through the Chicago area Friday night were related to mass transit and the one-time Sears Tower.

The latter structure that for many years was the world’s tallest had some of its windows knocked out by the winds that reached speeds of about 70 miles per hour. That’s a lot of shattered glass on the streets of the south Loop (and around the area, depending on how far the high winds blew it about).

WE SHOULD BE thankful that no one who happened to be in downtown Chicago Friday night was killed or severely maimed by glass shards flying through the air.

There also were the delays in running the Metra commuter trains for people trying to get home during the Friday evening rush hour – which is when that storm that spread across the United States and has now worked its way to the East Coast managed to hit Chicago.

It was an inconvenience experienced by many as crowds trying to get on board delayed trains meant a human backup that must have been unpleasant to experience – particularly on a night when most people were just eager to get home following yet another week of hard work.

Yet I also realize that when most people recall this weekend, they’re not going to think of it as the time that glass flew through the air above the Loop. Nor will they think much about the delay they experienced in getting home Friday night.

IF ANYTHING, THEY’RE going to recall the conditions they found once they got home.

Because those storms managed to play havoc with the electrical power lines, which meant that many people got home to find they had no electricity. Some people had to endure the entire weekend without electricity.

Considering that temperatures also reached the high-80s at times, that meant no air conditioning.

Which means it was a miserable weekend for many.

NOW I HAVE to confess that I was lucky. Where I live, our inconvenience was minimal.

When those winds hit our area at about 4:30 p.m. Friday, they created a situation where electrical power kept fading in and out.

At the time, I was using my laptop computer to try to write a story for someone willing to pay me some money for my work. While my laptop had a battery that immediately kept it going continuously, my electrical “loss” was that the lights kept going on and off, and the device that gives me a wireless connection to the Internet kept starting and stopping.

Which meant that one moment, I had Internet access, while another moment, I did not. I had to wait about a half-hour before I was able to verify a couple of facts I was using to write a story.

I WAS LUCKY in that power never was lost for more than a few seconds, and after about a half-hour it quit misbehaving. I didn’t lose power. Some 555,000 customers of Commonwealth Edison can’t make the same claim

That is more than I can say for many Chicago-area residents, some 64,000 of whom still hadn’t had their electricity restored as of Sunday morning. ComEd officials said the utility company expected most of those to be restored by day’s end.

But there were some people who came home Friday night without electricity, and never got it back. Perhaps they had to leave for work Monday morning, wondering what they would come home to (even though theoretically, they knew it was likely it would be restored by then).

In my case, the closest I personally came to such a case involved my father, who lives in a nearby town but happens to be on a vacation trip with my step-mother. His house lost power at about 5 p.m. Friday and did not get it restored until 11 a.m. Sunday.

HE PICKED THE perfect time to be away from the house, which as far as I can tell did not sustain any other weather-related damage. He will return Monday having to do little more than figure out which items in his refrigerator went bad because of the forty-plus hours it endured without electrical power. Not that everybody in the Chicago area was lucky enough to be on vacation when the storm struck.

For those who couldn’t find a friend or relative to impinge upon, it must have been a primative weekend – on account of how dependent our society has become on having a steady source of electicity to keep us going.

They get my sympathies because I recall the time I experienced a lengthy power outage in my residence. But that was for about 19 hours – most of which was overnight while I slept. I’m sure the sweaty, clammy conditions I woke up in that morning without electricity were nowhere near as bad as what some people experienced this weekend.

Which is why I almost wonder if those stories emphasizing the Willis Tower windows went so far as to trivialize the weekend. It may be a significant building in Chicago (and the United States), but I doubt it had much to do with what most people experienced during the weekend.

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Who gets mass transit perks?

It’s not much of a secret that mass transit on the city’s South Side is set up a little more awkwardly than it is up north.

There are those North Side neighborhood residents who can get by just fine without an automobile who think it is a sign of their urban “sophistication” that they can figure out how to get around “the city” on the elevated train systemThese are the Indiana commuter trains that could, but can't, pick up South Side residents. Photograph provided by State of Illinois.

I’D ARGUE THAT if they were true urban sophisticates, they’d live a stint on the South Side, and try to figure out how to navigate around the city in the section where commuter train service isn’t as expansive.

There are those to whom mass transit is “the bus’ and all those transfers that make truly lengthy trips across the city seriously inconvenient. It also creates people who reside in certain neighborhoods into those who rarely leave the neighborhood because going anywhere is such a pain in the butt.

It probably isn’t an accident that many of those most isolated neighborhoods are African-American in population. Not that I need to come out and say there is some sort of racial motive at work. I don’t have to because there are plenty of other people who will do so.

Just this week alone, the Chicago Tribune reported about a lawsuit being filed in U.S. District Court that contends the Regional Transportation Authority’s methods for splitting up state funding for mass transit programs is biased in favor of the suburban-dominant Metra commuter trains and against the Chicago Transit Authority that handles the buses and “el” trains in the city.

THE NEWSPAPER ALSO reported about a new activist group that wants increased transit service on the South Side, and is hoping to use the South Shore Railroad commuter trains to their benefit.

Those trains are the ones that connect South Bend, Ind., to Hammond, then have their trains pass through the South Side en route to their final destination – the Randolph Street station at Michigan Avenue.

Those trains, by agreement of the transit authorities in both states, don’t make stops at stations in the city neighborhoods, even though they share tracks and pass by stations used by the Metra Electric commuter train system that connnects southern Cook County to downtown Chicago.

In short, there are those who want more commuter train service through the South Side, because there are limitations as to how effective bus service can be – particularly since they’re making stops every couple of blocks or so and have too much of a knack of getting backed up during peak traffic times.

SO I CAN understand the reason that these activists are upset and why some people feel compelled to file lawsuits claiming that Metra is getting too much money.

The problem, however, is going to be to convince political people that there is any truth to that concept.

I can recall being a reporter-type person covering political debates that devolved into arguments about mass transit – usually because there were those who believed that it was the Chicago Transit Authority that got “too much” money and that it was the suburban services that ought to be receiving more.

Admittedly, the political partisan atmosphere has changed since those days to favor the city’s interests. But there are still going to be a significant number of government officials who will blatantly resist any attempt to make changes in favor of the South Side activists.

THE BIG FACTOR is just the cultural difference in the way mass transit is viewed between urban and suburban residents.

The latter account for about two-thirds of the people of the Chicago metropolitan area. But it is the CTA that gets nearly 90 percent of all the funding provided by the state for mass transit programs, with the bulk of the remainder going to the Metra commuter trains that connect various suburbs to downtown Chicago.

The actual amount that goes to Pace, the suburban bus entity, is so miniscule that that is the sole reason while suburban bus lines run so infrequently and are non-existent in certain parts of the Chicago area.

Those percentages are justified by officials on the grounds that it is city residents who make up the bulk of mass transit users. Yet it also is those same city residents who are using a system that in portions is more than a century old.

STATE SEN. KWAME Raoul, D-Chicago, (whose home neighborhood of Hyde Park has no CTA “el” trains running through it, but has some Metra Electric line trains that pass by) is sponsoring a bill in Springfield that, while it has little chance of passing, may persuade transportation officials to discuss the issue seriously to avoid having some sort of government intervention on the issue.

I have no doubt that the activists are absolutely correct when they argue that the mass transit service in their respective neighborhoods is in need of a serious upgrade. Yet this might very well turn into one of those issues where everybody agrees there is a problem, but no one is willing to do much about it because of the cost. For as much as the CTA needs a cash influx to improve (cost-cutting only means a reduction in service, which exacerbates the problems rather than resolving them), I have no doubt that Metra trains also need more finances in order to be maintained.

Reading about the federal court lawsuit, I got my chuckle when I read that Metra trains were “mass transit luxury.” I don’t remember anything particularly luxurious about a Metra train the last time I rode one (I occasionally use the Rock Island line Metra trains that run from Joliet to the Southwest Side, then to downtown).

In fact, I can think of CTA “el” trains that were cleaner. Then again, I probably was using a Red Line train to get to some North Side destination at the time.

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EDITOR’S NOTES: The federal courts in Chicago and the Statehouse in Springfield are being asked (http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/01/minorities-cheated-on-public-transit-funding-suit-says.html) to ponder (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-metra-southshorejan04,0,2377858.story) whether the problem of lesser quality mass transit service on the South Side is a coincidence, or some sort of legal catastrophe.